Quake survivors beat the winter

The race to save hundreds of thousands of Pakistani earthquake survivors from the harsh Himalayan winter has been won, the United Nations said yesterday.

"There has been no second wave of deaths, no massive population movement down the mountains, no severe malnutrition, and no outbreak of epidemics," said Jamie McGoldrick, the deputy humanitarian aid coordinator in Islamabad.

Five months ago yesterday about 87,000 people died when a 7.6 magnitude quake shook Kashmir and North-West Frontier province. Another 1,300 died in Indian-occupied Kashmir.

But fears of a second wave of deaths were averted by a milder than expected winter and a helicopter-led aid effort. By this week an international air fleet, including US and British military helicopters, had flown more than 27,400 trips ferrying food, tents and medicine.

Aid officials admit that, behind the back-patting, many thorny legal and social problems lie ahead as government and aid officials concentrate on helping the 2.6 million survivors. A year-long recovery plan, funded by $6.2bn (£3.5bn) pledged by international donors last November, will be launched next month.

Disputes over land rights are likely to be particularly troublesome. The Pakistan army has ordered that tented camps housing some 200,000 refugees be emptied by March 31. But some survivors, including farmers whose land disappeared under landslides and tenants without lease agreements, have nothing to return to.

Others are traumatised by the idea of going home. "My house is up there but I'm not going back," said labourer Sabaz Ali, from a camp in Batagram.

But most survivors, two million of whom are living in shelters near the rubble of their old homes, are expected to return peacefully. Many have already started rebuilding.